Senate Urges U.N. Resolution on Zionism Be Rescinded

October 28, 1987

WASHINGTON (Oct. 27)

A sense-of-the-Senate resolution urging the United States to support efforts to have the United Nations General Assembly rescind its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism was adopted last Friday night.

The resolution, introduced by Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D-N.Y.), declares that the U.N. resolution “has been unhelpful in the context of the search for a settlement in the Middle East; is inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations; remains unacceptable as a misrepresentation of Zionism; has served to escalate religious animosity and incite anti-Semitism.”

A similar resolution has been introduced in the House by Reps. Hamilton Fish and Benjamin Gilman (both R-N.Y.).

A spokesman for Moynihan said the senator hopes that the House resolution will be adopted before Israeli President Chaim Herzog arrives in Washington Nov. 10 for a state visit. It was Moynihan who introduced a resolution adopted by the Senate earlier this month urging President Reagan to invite Herzog for the first state visit to Washington by an Israeli president.

The resolution is similar to one adopted by the Australian Senate and House before Herzog’s visit to that country, according to Moynihan’s spokesman.

Moynihan and Herzog represented their countries at the United Nations when the General Assembly adopted the resolution. Moynihan said Tuesday that the resolution “was a direct attempt to delegitimize the State of Israel. This resolution was opposed by nearly every democratic nation on Earth and by many nations which are not so democratic. It is far past the time that we right this wrong.”